TinTin and the Art Thief
by TohruHonda44
Summary: Originally TinTin and the gang are off to locate Prof. Calculus, who's gone missing again. Soon they discover something greater at hand- a series of painting thefts with no connection to each other. ALSO, for the first time, TinTin falls in love.
1. The Letter

**Hi there! This is the first Fanfic I've written in a long while, and my first TinTin one at that so please go easy on me! Beta'd by my good friends B. and N. The Adventures of TinTin was created by Hergé, and does not belong to me.**

**Rating: T for drinking and fluff moments later on**

**Updates: I'll try and update this story with a new chapter each week. Please be aware that this could change due to school and unforeseen circumstances. Reviews may lead to faster updates. ;D Also, this chapter is sort of like an introduction. Hopefully the chapters to come will be longer.**

**Song: "The Love You Save" by The Jackson 5**

**Please enjoy! Don't forget to review!**

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

_Chapter 1- The Letter_

-

"Snowy, are you hungry?"

The little white terrier mix yipped in approval and happily pranced into the kitchen, encouraging his master to follow.

A young man of age 20 sat in a big red arm chair while reading a compilation of Sherlock Holmes stories. He had a prominent yellow curl atop his head which was his definite trademark.

Smoothing out his brown, tweed plus fours, TinTin got up and met his furry companion in their small Belgian kitchen.

As TinTin poured out some kibble, he looked out the small kitchen window that had a small crack in the corner.

Many people walked by- older men with canes and bowler hats, women and children carrying parcels wrapped in butcher paper, and…a boat captain?

The young reporter's eyes locked upon the familiar looking figure that wore a navel cap, and sported a black beard/mustache combo.

A smile came to the boy's face. "Captain Haddock! I wonder what brings him here."

Taking a break from his food Snowy looked up at his owner with apprehension. "Whenever he shows up we're always thrust into some crazy escapade."

Just at that moment there were a few short raps at the door.

"TinTin, my boy, open up quick- I've got something important to share."

"Just a moment, Captain", TinTin replied as he strolled to the door and opened it.

No sooner had he done this then the Captain somehow managed to take off his coat, seat himself at the small oak dining table and take out a bottle of _Loch Lomond _whiskey, unscrewing the top.

"So much for being polite…" Snowy muttered to himself, slinking off to the side.

"Hush, Snowy," Scolded TinTin. "So captain, what is this all about?"

Haddock paused for a moment and procured two glasses from his coat pocket. The seaman offered one to TinTin but he politely declined. After setting his friend's intended glass, Haddock glanced at his own. With a shrug, he tossed it over his shoulder, much to Snowy's dismay as it hit the poor dog square on the head.

Meeting TinTin's eyes, he pulled out a letter written on crumpled paper and handed it to his friend.

The boy read it over, and studied it carefully. His eyes widened with disbelief.

Haddock took a big swig of the whiskey, carelessly letting it dribble out of the corners of his mouth and onto his whiskers. He furrowed his brow in concern.

"Yessir…," Slurred the Captain. "Looks like another adventure."

-


	2. Let's go!

**I'm back! Hope you like the next chapter! By the by, the bit about Bianca Castafiore being imprisoned is from "TinTin and the Picaros". Check it out if you're interested.**

**Rating: T for drinking and fluff moments later on**

**The Adventures of TinTin was created by Hergé, and does not belong to me.**

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

_Chapter 2- Allons-y! / Let's Go!_

-

"Professor Calculus has gone missing again??" TinTin asked incredulously.

"'Fraid so," Replied the Captain, about ready to pass out. "This letter he sent dates a week ago from New York City. At least that gives us some kind of clue."

As he was about take another swig of whiskey, TinTin put a hand on the bottle.

"This doesn't seem right," Reasoned the young boy. "It's too well written to be his- the Professor is quite cryptic."

"Hostage maybe?" Haddock hiccupped.

There was a slight pause as his words began to sink in. With an astonished look on his face and a twinkle of adventure in his eyes, TinTin stood up from the table and went into his small room located off the slightly larger living room.

"If it is a friend in need then we must come to their aid!" He called to the drunken seaman in the other room.

Truthfully, TinTin was dying to get out of his small and go sightseeing. Despite this, he knew very well that there wasn't going to be any of that on that particular voyage.

After a moment or two he walked back into the dining room dragging a medium-sized red suitcase decorated with colorful stickers of past trips. He grinned at his best friend.

"Get your things Captain. If we have any hope of finding that elusive Professor we must depart post-haste."

"Oy vey…," Groaned Snowy from the parlor.

****

During the long plane ride over to New York City, TinTin amused himself with another book. Being a romance, it was something he rarely picked up.

This time however, it was recommended to him by Bianca Castafiore who constantly kept up a correspondence with the young reporter after he helped to retrieve her from San Theodoros for supposedly trying to overthrow General Tapioca.

In truth he usually didn't take her letters seriously, but she adamantly insisted that he give this particular book a read.

"_Something about it reminds me of you my dear boy."_ She wrote in the letter.

The title of the novel was "Seduction Deduction" and unfortunately most of the novel was soiled in unnecessarily copious amounts of smut.

But despite all this, there was something admittedly relatable about the main character, a scruffy Private Investigator named Will. Caught at the wrong place at the wrong time he quickly found himself entangled in a bizarre pyramid scheme headed by the enchanting and mysterious B. Rose.

Of course to get to the bottom of the scheme the P.I had to make "nice" with her and the rest was pretty much self explanatory.

Particularly fascinating to TinTin however was how involved Will was willing to be in the case in order to solve it.

Putting a piece of string in the book to mark his place, TinTin took a break and looked out the small oval window on his left. It almost felt as though they were underwater considering how blue the sky appeared to be.

On his right side the Captain was dozing, his sailor's cap just covering his eyes. His chest rose ever so slightly with each breath and a faint snore could be heard if one leaned in far enough.

At that moment, the boy began to day dream. This actually consisted of him imagining himself in different situations.

Presently, his mind rested upon the plot of "Seduction Deduction". Would he be willing to do the same thing that Will had so dared to do?

"_Unlikely…"_ He replied to himself in thought, smiling a bit at the thought of such a proposition.

After all, when would he ever be in a situation like that? It was preposterous to say the least.

The Captain let out a particularly loud snore, though it seemed to be more like a grunt. Lifting the cap off his eyes he opened one eye and glanced at TinTin, disoriented to say the least.

"Blistering barnacles, I have a massive headache." He grumbled softly, putting his palm on his forehead.

"It's because of all that whiskey Captain. Really, you must watch yourself." His young companion picked up his novel once more, shaking his head in regards to Haddock's drinking problem.

At that moment the loudspeaker came on: "Hey there folks. This is your Captain speaking. We're about a half hour or so from our destination of New York City so I'm going to go ahead and turn on the fasten seat belt sign. So sit back, relax, and we all hope you enjoy the rest of your flight. Thanks for joining us."

The passengers chattered quietly, all excited to finally be landing. In the faraway distance the skyscrapers of the Big Apple loomed.

Captain Haddock picked up an old newspaper from his front pocket and scanned the front page. A stewardess came by with a wicker basket filled to the brim with periodicals. Turning to the Captain and TinTin and seeing that the former was already reading something, she addressed the latter, holding out the basket towards him.

"Care for today's paper, sir?" She had straight brown hair with pale gold highlights and wore a red headband the color of Snowy's collar. She looked to be about TinTin's age and her eyes were the color of a fern.

"Yes please." Smiling, he helped himself to one and began to read. The stewardess moved on to the next row. As soon as she left, TinTin felt his friend's eyes bore into the side of his head.

"Captain...what are you…"

He grinned devilishly at the young reporter. "She was pretty wasn't she?"

TinTin went back to his newspaper. "I suppose so."

Astonished, the Captain put down his newspaper and shook TinTin's shoulders in disbelief. "Thundering typhoons, didn't you notice?? She was making eyes at you! When a woman makes eyes at you that means she wants to 'see you later' if you know what I mean..."

The boy rolled his eyes at his friend. "She wasn't 'making eyes' at me. She was just smiling, as was I. Besides we must focus on why we came in the first place- to find Professor Calculus!"

With that, he straightened out his paper so that it made it a crinkly sound and went back to reading. Haddock grumbled to himself: "Nothing wrong with a few distractions…"

TinTin sighed. Sometimes his friend could act quite ridiculous. Scanning the front page for any interesting news- perhaps there would be something about Calculus' disappearance.

Indeed, there was something of interest on the front page, though it wasn't about the Professor.

"World famous painting STOLEN at the Metropolitan Museum of Art!" He exclaimed aloud, causing several passengers in front of and behind him to give a resounding "shush".

"What say you, boy?" The Captain glanced over at TinTin's paper to get a look at the article.

"A painting titled 'Young Woman with a Water Pitcher' by Johannes Vermeer was reported missing yesterday morning and two detectives are being brought in to investigate. Nighttime security guards reported seeing or hearing no disturbances the night of the theft. This is very curious, Captain."

"Very. And of course knowing you, you're probably going to get involved somehow and drag me into it." Haddock folded his newspaper and set it back in the front seat pocket, settling into his seat and pulling out his pipe with a match.

"Captain, I don't think you're allowed to…"

"I'm sorry sir, but smoking is prohibited on this flight." The stewardess was back, this time carrying a trash bag. She smiled at TinTin once again.

The Captain grinned sheepishly up at her and stuffed his pipe back in his coat pocket. "Of course, Madam, of course. I wouldn't want to cause any trouble. Now do you think perhaps you could assure my young friend here that you are indeed available for dinner tonight after we land?"

"Captain Haddock! Please!" The reporter's cheeks turned a rosy pink and he buried his face in his paper in embarrassment.

She looked as though she was about to slap the foolish one of them in the face, when the pilot called for all of the stewards and stewardesses to assume landing positions. With a harrumph she turned on her heels and headed back down the aisle, almost as if steam was trailing behind her.

"That was most uncalled for!" TinTin said angrily.

"Oh come on." The Captain retorted. "You need some excitement in your life! You're already twenty!"

The plane's wheels touched ground just then, to many of the passenger's surprise and, seemingly hours later, skidded to a stop in front of the terminal.

After grabbing both of their suitcases and heading to the front of the plane, they ran into the stewardess. Haddock pulled at his blue turtleneck with nervousness. Noticing she had a bigger suitcase than either of them, TinTin let her pass in front of him, also in an attempt to make amends for his friend's poor behavior.

"After you." He said politely, looking down at his feet.

"No, no, after _you._"Without as much as making eye contact, she rolled her suitcase past the Captain and right over TinTin's left foot. He winced in pain.

"I guess I, though it should have been _you_, deserved that." TinTin muttered. Behind the two of them a steward came holding a small white dog wagging its tail with a leash attached.

"Snowy!" TinTin walked up to his companion, gave the steward a tip, and set him down, holding his leash in his right hand. "I'm so glad to see you!"

"Glad to see you too TinTin." Snowy replied stretching his back legs. "It was dreadful in there."

Commencing their long walk to the terminal, TinTin addressed the current problem at hand, turning to look at Haddock as he spoke. "I think the best way to find the Professor is to look in the places he would mostly likely go to. We can't rule out the possibility of a kidnapping, but we have to look into the idea that he's visiting on holiday first."

"Perhaps we can be of assistance." A voice stated, up ahead.

"To be precise, we should very much like to be assistance to you both." Another voice chimed in.

"Those two voices sound very familiar." The Captain whispered to TinTin.

Getting closer, they could make out two men wearing identical bowler hats and both sporting black moustaches, one flared and one bent, waving at them.

"Thomson and Thompson!" Haddock and TinTin both exclaimed.

"¡Ay, caramba!" Yelped Snowy in turn.

-


	3. A chance meeting

'**Ello! Gosh it's been too long! I'm afraid I've let myself become lazy and not update- for almost a month! That's shameful and I apologize.**

**Sorry this chapter is short. I'm getting ready to go visit family for Thanksgiving so I wanted to do a quick post before I go so I don't feel as though I'm procrastinating completely. Anyways, enjoy! Oh one last thing, no beta'ers for this chapter so there are most likely some errors.**

**The Adventures of TinTin was created by Hergé, and does not belong to me.**

_Chapter 3- A chance meeting_

-

"I can't believe you two are here! We really need all the help we can get!" TinTin smiled brightly having found his two detective friends.

Thomson twirled one of the ends of his moustache around his pinky finger while Thompson fiddled with his cane. "We're always willing to help a friend in need," the former affirmed confidently.

"Well in that case I think we should-"

"Hold on just a minute!" Haddock interrupted. "I'm not going _anywhere_ until I've had something to drink!"

"Must we Captain? If we have a hope of catching the Professor we have to go quickly!" The young reporter rubbed his temples in annoyance. Snowy grumbled.

"I won't take no for an answer! By Jove, I'm as thirsty as a cactus in the desert!"

Trying their best to appease Haddock, the group walked around the terminal endlessly, searching for a bar, preferably with his choice of whiskey.

Finally when their legs felt like lead weights, Snowy spotted one called Ed's, and the group weakly made their way in and sat on stools with peeling red cushions.

"Gimme a blackbird." Watching the bartender mix the blackberry brandy and coke, Haddock turned to his friends.

"Now then, TinTin, how may we be of service?" Thompson wiped his brow with an embroidered handkerchief produced from his vest pocket.

"Well like I was telling Captain Haddock on the plane ride over here, we can't rule out the possibility that Calculus is just on a little vacation. We need to search all the likely places he'd go to. Since there are now four of us we-"

Snowy growled in disapproval.

"Pardon me, _five _of us. Since there are five of us we can do a much more thorough search. Why don't Snowy, the Captain and I head uptown and you two can head downtown. I'm assuming you're staying at a hotel nearby?"

The twins shook their heads. "Well actually we were going to wait for you to arrive so that perhaps we could get a deal on a block of rooms or something of the sort."

Nodding in approval, TinTin tapped Haddock, who had turned around to face the rows and rows of wines and spirits while the bartender wiped shot glasses clean.

"Don't you think that's a good idea?"

Clearly tipsy again, he slowly turned around to face his friend, all the while having a hard time focusing his eyes on one thing.

"S-sure thing my boy...I just love a good ol' fashioned –hic- sleepover!" He placed his head on the bar and began to snore loudly.

"I'll take that to mean he thinks it's a good idea. Now where to find a good hotel..."

"If you don't mind my intrusion sir, I know of a good place you can stay. It's just up the street from here and the rate is fairly cheap." The bartender smiled at them while he wiped off some of the Captain's drool.

"Great! Thanks for putting up with our friend here…he has a bit of a problem I should think."

The man, who wore a nametag with Henri printed on it and had curly blond hair, shrugged. "It's part of my job. Besides, I've seen worse. Here, let me write that address down for you."

"We'll call us a cab." Thomson and Thompson tipped their bowler hats and went off to fetch one of the famous yellow taxis.

Getting the address from Henri, TinTin hoisted Haddock up from the bar and held on to his arm as they walked back out into the terminal. After receiving a pat from Henri as a goodbye, Snowy trotted along behind them.

Making their way to the busy street outside of the airport, TinTin suddenly felt overwhelmed. Huge skyscrapers towered over them, seeming to envelope the passerby in their shadows. Cars of all shapes, sizes, and colors raced by. Musicians strumming on guitars and banging on bongos added to the mix.

"Come along then!" The twins strained to have their voices heard over all the hubbub. "We've snagged one."

The yellow taxi was small, but it seemed to have enough room for all of them. TinTin put his drunken friend in the front seat and settled him in the back on the far right, placing Snowy on his lap. Thomson and Thompson took off their hats and placed their canes in their laps.

"To the Miranda Hotel please." The young reporter told the driver.

"Right away, Mr. TinTin." The driver replied, as TinTin and the twins gasped in astonishment, while Haddock burped.

-


End file.
